[MARMONTEL, Jean François.]. George SAINTSBURY (editor). Marmontel’s Moral Tales. London George Allen. 1895

8vo.; original darkest green cloth pictorially gilt to spine and upper board, top edges gilt, others uncut; pp. [vi], vii-xxxix + 423 + [i]; with chapter-headings, text illustrations and tailpieces after engravings by Hammond; a very bright clean copy with bruising to spine ends and tiny wear, spine gilt a touch dulled, lower forecorners a little turned; internally also fresh with crisp endpapers, light foxing to frontispiece tissue which has offset to frontispiece and title-page, toning and spotting to untrimmed fore-, and lower edges.

First edition, published in a fine Victorian cloth binding in imitation of Macmillan’s famous “Cranford Series” of classics.

A collection of short stories by a protégé of Voltaire, Jean-François Marmontel (1723-1799) which were first published in France (as “Contes Moraux”} between 1755 and 1759.  They were a response to the period of enlightenment and embrace ideals of reason, virtue and social improvement, each with a moral lesson. They made very popular reading in the eighteenth century and influenced European literature with their blend of wit and satire.